Topic of the Day – Anti Tank Missiles

It is an indigenously-developed second generation, Anti-Tank Guided Missile.

It has a range of 2.8 km. This is the first-ever design and developmental effort in respect of missiles by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad.

An Anti-Tank Missile (ATM) is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles.

ATGMs range in size from shoulder-launched weapons, which can be transported by a single soldier, to larger tripod -mounted weapons, which require a squad or team to transport and fire, to vehicle and aircraft mounted missile systems.

NAG

Nag is a third-generation; fire-and-forget, anti-tank guided missile developed by DRDO to support both mechanized infantry and airborne forces of the Indian Army.

The missile incorporates an advanced passive homing guidance system and possesses high single-shot kill probability. It is designed to destroy modern main battle tanks and other heavily armoured targets.

Nag can be launched from land and air-based platforms. The land version is currently available for integration on the Nag missile carrier (NAMICA), which is derived from a BMP-2 tracked infantry combat vehicle.

It is all weather, top attack missile with a range of 3 to 7 km.

In addition, HELINA (Helicopter launched NAG) is the air-to-ground version of the NAG anti-tank missile integrated into the HAL built Dhruv Helicopters.

SPIKE ANTI-TANK GUIDED MISSILES

India is moving forward with a $1 billion purchase of Spike anti-tank guided missiles from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems of Israel, overlooking the single-vendor situation in the deal, according to an Indian Ministry of Defence official.

Under the deal, the Indian Army will procure 321 Spike ATGM launchers, 8,356 missiles, 15 training simulators and associated accessories from Rafael on a single-vendor basis.

“The single-vendor situation has arisen as the other option, American Javelin, was found to be too expensive and has been accepted as a fait accompli keeping in view the needs of the Indian Army for third-generation ATGM

The deal also includes an option to build another 1,500 launcher systems and about 30,000 additional missiles under technology transfer to state-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited. The first delivery of the Spike ATGM is likely to being 58 to 60 months after the deal is signed.

The Army currently faces a shortage of ATGMs and has a total requirement of 40,000 ATGMs in the next 20 years. In the meantime, it is using second-generation Milan missiles (with a 2-kilometer range) and Konkurs missiles (with a 4-kilometer range) produced by BDL under license from French and Russian companies, respectively.